1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention are generally related to information stored in a content management system. More specifically, embodiments of the invention are related to a method and system for enhanced attribute synchronization in a content management system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Content management systems (CMS) allow multiple users to share and create information. Generally, a CMS system allows users to create, modify, archive, search, and remove data objects from an organized repository. The data objects managed by CMS may include documents, spreadsheets, database records, digital images and digital video sequences. A CMS typically includes tools for document publishing, format management, revision control, indexing, search and retrieval.
One useful feature provided by some CMS systems allows users to have content from a data object synchronized with data attributes managed by the CMS. For example, a word processing document may have embedded metadata reflecting a version or author of the document. At the same time, the CMS may record similar information such as version or document numbers. A CMS system may be configured to update the version number maintained by the CMS whenever the version number reflected in the embedded metadata is changed. Thus, synchronization rules may be used to ensure that the content of a data object stored in the CMS and attributes about the data object maintained by the CMS are synchronized with one another.
Synchronization features may be very useful for targeted searches on XML content, as it is typically more straightforward to build metadata queries in a CMS. Accordingly, some CMS systems provide a mechanism for bidirectional synchronization. That is, a single CMS attribute may be synchronized with a single piece of XML content whenever either the CMS attribute or the XML content is updated. However, the bidirectional nature of synchronization in current systems lacks certain features and flexibility needed to meet advanced synchronization demands. For example, current systems cannot process complex synchronization rules or a synchronization scheme where data from multiple CMS attributes is used to synchronize document metadata or contents and vice versa.
Accordingly there remains a need in the art for techniques for enhanced attribute synchronization in a content management system.